Seattle, Washington and
Wilmington, Delaware
May 11, 2005
CompleGen, Inc., a
Seattle drug discovery company, and
DuPont Crop Protection
announced the initiation of a research agreement whereby
CompleGen will employ its XenoGeneR(TM) system to discover the
targets of active compounds identified by DuPont Crop
Protection. This application of the XenoGene(TM) technology, an
example of "reverse chemical genomics," is a powerful system by
which the molecular target of a compound with a known
physiological activity can be found by genetic selection.
Dr. John
Swindle, CompleGen's Chief Scientific Officer, stated, "We are
happy to be working with DuPont Crop Protection on this exciting
program. This is the fourth in a series of collaborations with
DuPont Crop Protection, and we believe we have established an
excellent working relationship with DuPont scientists. This also
demonstrates the broad applicability of our technology in that
it allows us to use a genetic approach encompassing the entire
genome of an organism in the discovery of targets for compounds
of high interest to DuPont."
Dr. Pat
Confalone, R&D Director of DuPont Crop Protection, said, "Our
scientists have established an excellent working relationship
with their counterparts at CompleGen. We are pleased to extend
this collaboration, which allows us to access CompleGen's
XenoGene(TM) technology to aid in our discovery effort."
CompleGen
is an emerging biopharmaceutical company located in Seattle, WA.
CompleGen has developed and patented a system for high
throughput discovery of highly specific and potent compounds
that act on proteins of interest as drug (or agrochemical)
targets. CompleGen is building its business on the capability to
rapidly and inexpensively discover specifically acting
compounds, patent them and establish development programs with
pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies. CompleGen has
acquired a large compound library to support this effort.
CompleGen also has developed the capability to determine
mechanism of action of bioactive compounds, without prior
knowledge of which genes and proteins are involved, and uses
that information to design highly specific and potent new
analogs. CompleGen has other programs, completed or ongoing,
with DuPont, Berlex Biosciences (a Subsidiary of Schering, AG)
and other pharmaceutical companies. |